Denny Hamlin's Race Car Comes To Life In New Progressive Ads

Denny Hamlin, one of NASCAR's most established racers, will be featured in a new advertising campaign from Progressive Insurance, where we'll find out what his racecar has to say.

Denny Hamlin poses with his "living" No. 11 Progressive Toyota race car in Progressive's new "The Car Lives" promotional shoot. | Progressive Insurance

Have you ever wondered what your car would say to you if it could talk? Thanks to a new advertising campaign from Progressive, titled "The Car Lives", we're going to find out what Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry race car has to say throughout the season.

On Friday, the Insurance company, which has entered its second season as a primary sponsorship partner for Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team, revealed the first two ad spots for the new advertising campaign via the company's official YouTube Channel.

In an exclusive interview with Racing America On SI, Hamlin admits while he didn't come up with any of the ideas himself, that he had a blast working with Progressive on the series of ads, and that he feels honored to have his own advertising piece to go along with the company's robust lineup of ads that have aired during big-time sporting events.

"This is Progressive's creative, but it was a very fun day of production," Hamlin explained. "I've gotten to do some promotional shoots with other sponsors before, but, as we've seen, if you watch any kind of sports, you've more than likely seen a Progressive commercial, whether it's Flo, or "Don't Be Your Parents", things like that. This is a big company that has a lot of presence in sports. So, to finally have my own piece with them to play to the motorsports world is going to be fantastic. And I really look forward to it."

In the 31-second spot titled "Victory Celebration", Hamlin talks to his No. 11 Progressive race car at his home following a race win about how they should celebrate the victory. Hamlin ends up choosing the option that he knows his car will appreciate, which is kicking back in front of a television, where they watch a video of Hamlin performing burnouts after a race win together.

In a separate 31-second spot titled "Story Time", Hamlin's car interrupts the driver attempting to sleep. The car says it can't sleep ahead of a race the following day, and wants Hamlin to tell him the story about the 31 million people who trust Progressive to insure their cars.

It's a really unique set of ads that Progressive revealed on Friday afternoon.

"It was very creative," Hamlin said. "I kind of form this relationship with my car, and all it's wanting to talk to me about is Progressive's customers and all of the different policies that Progressive has, and I'm just trying to catch some z's. You know, how we choose to celebrate might be different between the two of us. So, there are a lot of things, different spots that I'm looking forward to seeing how the finished product turned out."

At the end of the day, as the motorsports world continues to trend back to levels of popularity that were reached in the early to mid 2000s, Hamlin says companies like Progressive going all-in with their partnerships in the sport are what is desperately needed.

"This is what, truthfully, we need, right? This is the sponsors that the sport loves that not only have stickers on the race cars, but activates outside, and create more of a national presence," Hamlin said.

Keep an eye out for "The Car Lives" advertising campaign from Progressive Insurance, which I'm sure is coming to a race broadcast, or sporting event broadcast near you, very soon.